Nelson Antonio*
Department of Applied Educational Science, University of Namibia, Rundu, Namibia
Received: 01-Dec-2022, Manuscript No. JES-22-82000; Editor assigned: 05-Dec-2022, Pre QC No. JES-22-82000(PQ); Reviewed: 21-Dec-2022, QC No. JES-22-82000; Revised: 29-Dec-2022, Manuscript No. JES-22-82000(R); Published: 05-Jan-2023, DOI: 10.4172/JES.8.7.001
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Teachers are pivotal figures in influencing the shape, development, and transmission of culture of teaching. The nation is re-examining its views on Teacher education with great emphasis on teaching and learning and the transformation of schools. Previous educational reforms have already intensified growing public interests in the role of teachers, the practice of teaching, the nature and future of teacher education in Namibia. The title is appropriate for this article since it conceptualizes on systems that build on individual, team and organizational capacities to transform schools. This hermeneutic phenomenology research project tends to demonstrate the importance of recognizing these newly aroused educators’ perceptions and attitudes as they hold great possibility for change. Furthermore, this qualitative study reveals that since teachers are uniquely qualified to understand, describe, criticize and modify their own perspective, their voices are essential to the task at hand and must be recognized at all costs, as far as transforming the school into a learning organization is concerned. This article concludes that no true education can take place without comprehending the role and personhood of educators, without understanding institutional and cultural prospects and constraints of educators, without recognizing their individual performance, without reflecting on and reviewing the entire reward strategy and philosophy and without encouraging educators to pursue with teacher education. All in all, the author presents an extensive and a serious contemporary discussion of findings on educators’ perceptions and attitudes towards teacher education, as far as changing the school into a viable site of learning is concerned.
Teacher education; Educator’s perceptions; Attitudes; Transformation; learning organization; Job satisfaction; Work engagement
The problem
One of the vision of Namibia is to ensure that people have access to lifelong education and training opportunities, which will in turn contribute towards improving the quality of life and building a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society. Teachers are the most valuable resource in schools and as such, they are subjected to strive for educational standards. This includes teachers wishing to assess more deeply their role in schools and society, the reform-minded administrators who are seeking to understand the school-life of teachers, the researcher who must develop methods of inquiry relevant to the improvement of teaching and the teacher educators who are working to understand, describe and explain teacher education and teaching to those who would be teachers in Namibian schools.
As a result, the learners and parents depend on teachers to make schools work. The idea of transforming the school into a learning organization presents a number of challenges. Educators are challenged to redefine and rethink their roles as educators and to examine critically the interaction between themselves, their learners and their parents, leadership support towards teacher education, as well as the quality of education they deliver. The redefinition of educators’ roles and responsibilities can only be made possible by means of teacher education which would shade light to the transformation of schools. Ironically, the redefinition of educators’ roles and responsibilities are attributed by the following seven disturbing features:
1. Educators’ are not motivated to recognize themselves as lifelong learners to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
2. The individual performance of educators are not recognized.
3. Educators with high and low qualifications are placed on the same job grade and remuneration.
4. Promotion is the only means to adjust educators’ salary to a higher job grade and pay.
5. The reward of a cash bonus is far too low and not even equal to the amount spent by studying towards such a qualification.
6. Educators’ are not required to use that learning-centred spirit to improve their skills, knowledge, attitudes and competencies.
7. Educators’ are problematized to reassert their own moral autonomy to provide space and time for improving the learning outcomes of their students.
In most counties, such as: Europe, USA and UK, educators are rewarded and remunerated as they acquire new knowledge and as they accomplish new qualifications. These negative and disturbing features cannot spur educators to pursue with teacher education, and this has a very serious implication on classroom and leadership practice, as well as transformation of the school. Most educators, if not all, are not satisfied with their jobs and this is one of the main reason why they demonstrate poor work engagement and work embeddedness. There is, for example, an increasing tendency towards low morale among educators, ineffective school practices, an atmosphere of exhaustion, inconsistent attendance of educators, lack of purpose, vision and direction at some schools, to name but a few. It is very essential to see the problem faced by schools in a wider context. Schools do not operate in vacuum, they are inextricably connected to the immediate environment, which in turn is influenced by the remote environment. What happens in schools today can and does, negatively affect the complex web of interrelationships in which schools are participants. Educators can transform schools into learning organizations only if schools fulfil the moral purpose of education.
The idea of transforming the school into a learning organization presents a number of challenges. Education is not only paramount to economic prosperity, it also plays a crucial role in enabling people to improve the quality of their lives. Learning and change are, thus, the secret of continuous development and growth in a learning organization. Through Teacher Education, individuals, teams and schools can more readily adapt to the many changes that take place in their internal and external contexts.
Purpose
This exploratory project is aimed at investigating educators’ perceptions and attitudes towards teacher education and the impact it has on transforming the school into a learning organization. The study also encourages educational authorities to devise mechanisms to revisit educators’ satisfaction (job grade and remuneration, recognition of individual performance and rewards) and attitudes to propose, determine and initiate interventions that can encourage educators to pursue with teacher education that could yield transformation of the Namibian schools into learning organizations.
Significance of the study
This paper asserts that it is of cardinal importance to encourage educators to pursue with teacher education. Developing a learning organization encompasses the adoption of appropriate teaching methods, services and processes, as well as the acquisition of acceptable functioning of systems which may result in the ability of the school to redirect itself successfully in a situation where global competition has to be confronted. This study also reveals the fact that transforming schools into learning organization requires educators to be in harmony with their work in order to develop flexible programs in such a way that they clearly reflect the core culture of the school. Schools cannot succeed in isolation, realization of objectives can only be possible with the aid of teachers. Unhappy educators may amount to low levels of productivity and organizational performance. This means that when educators are not motivated to pursue with teacher education, they will be unable to create teaching and learning context that encourages transformation of the school into a learning organization. Educators are critical to school success because they are a link between the subject matter and the learner. It is unquestioningly and paramount to share this piece of information with the rest of the global world, who may experience similar situations.
To explain why teacher education is paramount and how schools can become learning organizations, it is deemed very imperative to provide a theoretical framework on the following themes.
Teacher education
Bishop, Berryman, Wearmouth, Peter and Clapham refers teacher education as policies, procedures and provision designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and skills they require to perform their tasks effectively in the classroom, school and wider community [1]. Teacher education has a significant and positive impact on classroom and leadership practice. Greenberg, asserts that motivation is the desire to achieve beyond expectations, being driven by internal rather than external factors and to be involved in a continuous striving for improvement [2]. This implies that employees can voluntarily sacrifice themselves by engaging in training opportunities in order to remain abreast with future developments related to their jobs. Rothmann and Rothmann states that recognition is one of the factors of motivation that drives employee behaviour in the work place [3]. Baumeister argues that developing self-esteem and self-worth go hand in hand with offering recognition to the achievement of particular goals [4]. Thus, recognition in itself becomes a drive. Since people may base their decision on previous convictions, experiences and information from others, educators can only pursue goals that will be recognized and valued by those who were influential to them: family, friends, peers and social groups, as well as work organizations. Failure to grant such recognition may result in dissatisfaction which may discourage teachers from pursuing teacher education. Teacher education provide educators with the bonus of deepened insight and spiritual growth. “The accelerated growth of subject content as well as technological development demand that a teacher does not stagnate” [5]. Sparks also stressed that educational staff development opportunities be concerned with teachers’ knowledge and skills as well as attitudes and approaches [6]. Based on this, teacher education programs must be concerned with improving effectiveness and efficiency in teaching and learning. This suggests that the more training educators receive, the more chances for effective classroom and leadership practice. This means that the school can easily be changed into a learning organization [7,8]. MacGilchrist et al. argues that as learning mediators, educators are required to show understanding of the learning assumptions that underpin key teaching strategies [9]. Meanwhile Kim reiterates that as lifelong learners, educators are expected to understand how to access and use common information sources [10]. Thakrar, Wolfenden and Zinn argues that as leaders, educators work with other practitioners in team teaching and engage in participative decision making [11]. Dhamija, Gupta, and Bag observed that educators in learning organizations must do more than set a good example and be mentors [12]. If the message of learning is to permeate the school, educators must also manage learning. Simply put, schools need to be internally aligned and environmentally attuned to survive in a complex, turbulent environment. This can only be realized when the entire occupational group of educators within the organization are virtually well equipped by virtue of teacher education and have positive attitudes on furthering with teacher education. Senge et al argues that confronting the ever changing demands of a shifting landscape, educators have to refashion their attitudes and practices [13]. Fullan asserts that teachers along with learners have to regard themselves as life-long learners if they want learning societies [14].
Features of a learning organization
Coetzee, Schreuder and Tladinyane provides the following features of a learning organization drawing from the viewpoints of Marsick, Watkins Garvin, Tan, De Geus, Hellriegel, Jackson, Slocum and Marquardt [15-20]. Learning organizations operate differently, but they all continuously assess their skills and their learning capacity to adapt to the changing world of work and to the changing rules of educational law and policy. Performance-based rewards are offered, and educators are motivated and inspired by virtue of flexible structures. Since a learning organization is one that learns constantly and transforms itself, it is able to deal proactively with change. A deep sense of commitment provides the energy needed to succeed as a world-class organization, although this requires commitment and focused effort. In a learning organization, learning occurs at four levels: the individual, team, organization, and societal levels. The benefit of learning in this organization is that transformation is nurtured through creating appropriate contexts for continuous learning. Based on this Coetzee, Schreuder and Tladinyane contends that the concepts “earning” and “work” are considered an integral whole that accepts that learning can occur in a variety of contexts.
Individuals in organization settings are not always neutral observers. They can and often do, enhance and enrich a process, event or experience. They can also disregard, distort, misjudge or sabotage. Individuals learn when they detect and correct errors. Organizational learning is aimed at the individual, group and system (school) levels and is a prerequisite to continuously transform the organization in a direction that is increasingly satisfying to its stakeholders [21]. Organizational learning is the creating, acquiring and transferring of distinct practices in the school. It is a transformative process, which emerges from the concept of organizational development. Organizational development is a process of actively implementing planned change to help schools examine and change their own routines and cultural norms. The organizational learning process is effective if it integrates the school more closely with its environment so that it becomes more responsive to the demands of the changing context within which it operates. Moreover, organizational learning implies modification of behaviour, attitudes and approaches, and using the knowledge that is created to change the school environment. These changes may take place in the form of empowering educators through self-management of schools, democratic school renewal and collegial partnerships. A school is learning when it involves structures that encourages individual performance and creativity and do not overload or underutilize educators’ skills and talents.
Job satisfaction, organizational commitment
According to Gagné et al. job satisfaction refers to autonomy, competence, belongingness or relatedness and is paramount for growth with regard to integrity and health [22]. Robbins, mentions that people can only be happy when their individual talents are recognized. Since people may think and react differently to situations from time to time, some people may only make conscious decisions based on the information from others, while others may base their decision on previous convictions, experiences and wisdom. Educators can only pursue goals that will be recognized and valued by those who were influential to their decision. Failure to grant such recognition may result in dissatisfaction which may discourage teachers from pursuing teacher education [23].
This implies that unhappy employees may not be fully committed to the organization, they may even consider to quit their jobs and look for better satisfying jobs. Unhappy employees may compromise on organizational commitment and competence. Muyogi, argues that money is the only strongest motivational factor thus, offering better salaries can keep top talent employees who may be fully committed to the organization [24-26].
Work engagement and job attitudes
According to Ondendaal, work engagement is the ability of an individual to show involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm with work. Employees who are highly engaged with work may demonstrate passion for their work and may deeply remain committed to the organization without wanting to quit the organization. Work engagement also go hand in hand with motivation. Zuller mentions that motivating employees encompass various drives, desires, needs, wishes and other forces. Managers can create a conducive working environment to ensure that employees are actively engaged with their work. Engaged employees demonstrate a feeling of involvement, commitment, passion and empowerment. Organizations can establish a competitive advantage by fostering a positive working environment [27-29].
Kovjanic et al. reiterates that attitudes go hand in hand with commitment. Happy employees can work hard towards the accomplishment of pre-determined goals and enhance organizational performance. Janic points out that those experiencing healthy relations with colleagues may contribute to high levels of commitment. According to Dockel, Basson and Coetzee unhealthy relations at work are the major causes of poor productivity within organizations [30,31].
The value of teacher education
Gorton, Campel et al; Finch and McGough reveals that through teacher education, educators will be provided with a broad knowledge of the subject matter, modern didactic skills, and deep insight into the psyche and stage development of learners in schools. The accelerated growth of subject content as well as technological developments demand that a teacher does not stagnate. Teachers who are effectively equipped by virtue of teacher education will serve the learners entrusted to their care to a maximum extend. Gorton, further argues that teacher education provides the teacher with the bonus of deepened insight and spiritual growth. Teacher education will not only increase the individual teacher’s self-image, and, at the same time, the effectiveness in the classroom, but will also heighten the status and esteem of the entire educators in the eyes of the community.
Research methodology
Making use of an interview guide, a hermeneutic phenomenology research design was employed to collect data on educators’ perceptions and attitudes towards teacher education and the impact it has on transforming the school into a learning organization [32]. Making use of a phenomenological hermeneutic research method makes provision to access a large number of participants and gather information on a variety of perceptions and attitudes. Hermeneutic research methodology can produce rich textual descriptions of the experiencing of selected phenomena in the life world of individuals that are able to connect with the experience of all of us collectively. Hermeneutic phenomenology deals with the experience of individuals, therefore, this approach was used for understanding the perceptions and attitudes of educators towards teacher education and the impact it has on transforming the school into a learning organization. The approach was hermeneutic because it explored and interpreted these experiences in light of what they already knew about the topic under consideration. Interviews were conducted among respondents who agreed to participate in the project in order to obtain their biographical information as shown in Table 1.
| Respondents (Pseudonym) | Gender | Age | Experience in teaching and leadership | Highest qualification obtained | Rank | Role/Area of work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin | M | 45 | 21 | PhD | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Taniah | F | 38 | 15 | Bachelor’s degree | Education Officer | Advisory service (Commerce) |
| Frank | M | 35 | 12 | Master’s degree | Education Officer | Advisory service (Languages) |
| Monicah | F | 55 | 31 | Teacher’s diploma | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Cathrine | F | 41 | 16 | Post-graduate diploma | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Deborah | F | 39 | 14 | Master’s degree | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Keysha | F | 47 | 23 | PhD | Education Officer | Advisory service (Social sciences) |
| Francois | M | 51 | 26 | Bachelor’s degree | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Mitch | M | 40 | 16 | Master’s degree | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Yolandah | F | 36 | 13 | Bachelor’s degree | Education Officer | Advisory service (Mathematics and Science) |
| Jack | M | 41 | 18 | Bachelor’s degree | Education Officer | Planning services |
| Shane | M | 53 | 30 | Teacher’s diploma | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Merciah | F | 46 | 23 | Master’s degree | Education Officer | Planning services |
| Derby | F | 35 | 12 | Post-graduate diploma | Education Officer | Advisory service (Mathematics and Science) |
| Whitney | F | 43 | 21 | Teacher’s diploma | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Rose | F | 38 | 14 | Bachelor’s degree | Education Officer | Advisory service (Languages) |
| Sharon | F | 52 | 30 | Master’s degree | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Nick | M | 44 | 21 | Master’s degree | Education Officer | Advisory service (Social sciences) |
| Eddy | M | 52 | 30 | Teacher’s diploma | Principal | Leadership and Management |
| Stacy | F | 37 | 14 | Bachelor’s degree | Education Officer | Advisory service (Commerce) |
Table 1. Description of participants (Principals and Education officials only).
Respondents
The researcher used a homogeneous purposive sampling strategy to recruit 200 participants from 10 different schools, excluding 10 education officials. The sample comprised of 10 principals, 10 education officials and 180 teachers within the Khomas region. Respondents comprised of 110 females (55%) and 90 males (45%). This strategy enabled the researcher to select educators who had past experience in teaching and who were pursuing teacher education. The selection also allowed educators who had more than five years of experience in teaching to participate in this study. Furthermore, this strategy helped in achieving a homogeneous sample of respondents with experience in teaching and teacher education.
It is important to note that some of these educators worked in positions that involved managerial tasks and responsibilities. Their job description included among others, providing leadership and management of the school and hostel, supervision of teaching and non-teaching staff at the school and hostel, implementing teaching and learning programs, planning, and organizing to achieve desired organizational objectives. They also had a significant involvement with pursuing teacher education. Interviews were completed with the respondents who agreed to participate in the project.
Data collection and analysis
Email invitations were sent to the eligible participants. These invitations also included information about the purpose, objectives of the study, benefits/risks, and the overall time needed to complete the interview. Once responses were received from respondents, a convenient or preferred location was chosen in consultation with the respondents. Written and signed consent from respondents was also obtained prior to the interview meetings indicating that they are participating willingly, may withdraw from the study at any time and were in no way coerced into participating. Each respondent completed a semi-structured interview that lasted 30-45 min. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Written transcripts were sent to all the respondents for review to ensure that the information was adequately represented in the written format. The interview guide was written once a literature review related to perceptions and attitudes of educators towards teacher education was completed. The researcher took ample time to look at the guide in order to ascertain its overall relevance to the research questions.
The researcher also took field notes during the data collection phase and were entered as data for the study. These notes include a description of the interview environment and thoughts of the researcher.
This allowed the researcher to return to the interview setting (in concept rather than actually visiting the site) while conducting an analysis of the collected data. After the interviews were completed, the entire data was transcribed verbatim. The researcher also heard and reviewed the recorded data several times while working on data analysis for the study. This enabled the researcher to be immersed in the data and think about what respondents actually said/meant during the interviews. Following this step, the researcher reached out to respondents for additional clarification. Final transcripts were also sent to respondents to ensure that data was captured accurately. After approval was received from respondents, the researcher highlighted the statements that appeared to reveal the topic under consideration. An inductive approach to thematic analysis was utilized in the current project. The researcher then reviewed each line of the transcripts and the field notes several times. In the process, phrases were compared to determine whether they fit under the already existing code or whether new codes needed to be developed. The phrases that represented the same concept were gathered into key thematic statements. Quotes from respondents were used to support these themes. After an initial round of analysis, the researcher relooked at the themes in order to identify areas that needed more inquiry. Following this, themes were further refined and all the interviews/transcripts were revisited to examine key commonalities and differences. This paved a way to the identification of final themes that described the perceptions and attitudes of educators towards teacher education. After this, the final analysis was confirmed by the researcher.
Ten school principals, ten education officers with extensive experience in leadership and management, and 180 teachers with experience in teaching were recruited in the study. Among these educators, some were busy pursuing teacher education courses. From the data analysis it became easier to establish five major themes:
1. The importance of transforming the school into a learning organization.
2. Motivation of educators to pursue with teacher education.
3. The redefinition of educators’ roles and responsibilities.
4. Teachers are uniquely qualified.
5. The individual performance of educators
The importance of transforming the school into a learning organization
The results indicate that teacher education and the transformation of the school into a learning organization go hand in hand. Transformation of the school into a learning organization provides educators and learners with a continuous learning attitude. The most obvious advantage of a learning organization is that it creates an environment where the acquisition of skills, positive attitudes and knowledge is valued and rewarded, while the individual learning styles of each member of staff are accommodated. In this way, learning in the school can be used as a proactive change strategy. This strategy can assist the school to anticipate the unexpected and find ways of solving problems and adapting. Furthermore, this approach will bind educators together through shared values and a shared vision and will strengthen the efforts to build a learning community that translates into a learning organization. Mansaray argues that schools can only develop into learning organizations if educational authorities motivate educators to work hard and to create a teaching and learning context that encourages [33].
• Collective monitoring of our programs and problem solving strategies.
• Collaborative and enabling learning environments within the school.
• Development of shared visions.
• Alignment of educational processes, procedures and goals.
• Empowerment of educators, learners and parents.
• Broad participation in decision making.
• Recognition of individual and collective talent.
Educators’ commitment should not be focused on bureaucracy but on creating an environment for learning and continuing openness to new ideas. The learning organization is a dream, but it is a dream that can be realized [34,35]. Therefore, most scholars believe that motivating people to pursue with education increases professional growth and organizational performance Huma, Javaid and Ishtiaque believes in defining motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need [36]. Educators have to realize that they cannot thrive without adapting their attitudes and practices to the ever changing demands of a shifting landscape. Teachers must learn if the school has to be transformed into a learning organization, and learners must learn if society is to succeed. “The accelerated growth of subject content as well as technological development demand that a teacher does not stagnate”. When the entire occupational group of educators are well equipped with knowledge and skills by virtue of their training, they do not only increase their individual self-image or the effectiveness of teaching in their classrooms, but they also enhance the image and status of the entire organization in the eyes of the community also accentuates that initial training of our times can no longer be adequate; it may become anachronistic because of changes that may have taken place in scientific data. Argued that teachers are the most valuable resource in schools and as such, they are subjected to strive for educational standards also stressed that educational staff development opportunities be concerned with teachers’ knowledge and skills as well as attitudes and approaches. Based on this, most researchers believe that improving effectiveness in teaching and learning should be the center of preoccupation for any teacher education program. This suggests that the more training educators receive the more chances for effective teaching and learning. This means that teaching and learning is likely to be maximally effective at the advantage of all learners. Continued teacher education is needed in order to establish flexible teaching and learning structure that can facilitate the adoption of appropriate teaching methods, services and processes, as well as the acquisition of acceptable functioning of systems which may result in the ability of the school to redirect itself successfully in a situation where global competition has to be confronted.
Motivation of educators towards teacher education
Teacher education is needed in order to establish flexible teaching and learning structure that can facilitate the adoption of appropriate teaching methods, services and processes, as well as the acquisition of acceptable functioning of systems which may result in the ability of the school to redirect itself successfully in a situation where global competition has to be confronted. When educators are not satisfied or committed at work, it can result in low levels of work engagement, absenteeism, exhaustion, cynicism, low productivity and turnover. This means that when educators are not motivated to pursue with teacher education, they will be unable to create teaching and learning context that encourages transformation of the school into a learning organization.
Motivating educators to pursue with teacher education will create teaching and learning context that encourages transformation of the school into a learning organization. Educators have to be motivated to recognize themselves as lifelong learners to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Educators’ need to be encouraged to use that learning centered spirit to improve their skills, knowledge, attitudes and competencies. Educators need to be inspired and motivated to reassert their own moral autonomy to provide space and time for improving the learning and learning that could yield to successful transformation of schools into learning organizations. Most scholars believe that motivating educators to pursue with education increases professional growth and organizational performance believes in defining motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort towards organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. Educators have to realize that they cannot thrive without adapting their attitudes and practices to the ever changing demands of a shifting landscape. Teachers must learn if the school has to be transformed into a learning organization, and learners must learn if society is to succeed. “The accelerated growth of subject content as well as technological development demand that a teacher does not stagnate”. When the entire occupational group of educators are well equipped with knowledge and skills by virtue of their training, they do not only increase their individual self-image or the effectiveness of teaching in their classrooms, but they also enhance the image and status of the entire organization in the eyes of the community also accentuates that initial training of our times can no longer be adequate, it may become anachronistic because of changes that may have taken place in scientific data, that teachers are the most valuable resource in schools and as such, they are subjected to strive for educational standards, also stressed that educational staff development opportunities be concerned with teachers’ knowledge and skills as well as attitudes and approaches. Based on this, most researchers believe that improving effectiveness in teaching and learning should be the center of preoccupation for any teacher education program. This suggests that the more training educators receive, the more chances for effective teaching and learning. This means that teaching and learning is likely to be maximally effective at the advantage of all learners.
The redefinition of educator’s roles and responsibilities
Educators are challenged to redefine and rethink their roles as educators, and to examine critically the interaction between themselves, their learners and their parents, leadership support towards teacher education, as well as the quality of education they deliver. The redefinition of educators’ roles and responsibilities can only be made possible by means of teacher education which would shade light to the transformation of schools [37].
Teachers are uniquely qualified
Since teachers are uniquely qualified to understand, describe, criticize, and modify their own perspective, their voice is essential to the task at hand and must be recognized at all costs, as far as transforming the school into a learning organization is concerned. Parents and learners depend on teachers, thus, teachers can transform schools into learning organizations only if schools fulfill the moral purpose of education. The findings suggest that no true education can take place without comprehending the role and personhood of educators, without understanding institutional and cultural prospects and constraints of educators, without recognizing their individual performance, without reflecting on and reviewing the entire reward strategy and philosophy and without encouraging educators to pursue with teacher education.
The individual performance of educators
Rothmann and Rothmann, states that recognition go hand in hand with motivation that drives employee behavior in the work place [38]. Baumeister argues that building the self-esteem and self-worth in individuals is providing recognition to the achievement of particular goals. Thus, the aspect of recognition itself becomes a drive. Employees may only pursue goals that will be recognized and valued by those whose opinions and judgments are influential. Failure to grant such recognition may provoke dissatisfaction which may discourage teachers from pursuing teacher education. Every individual need to succeed in life. People tend to focus more on what they know, on what they think or believe they can do or on what they assume they are able to achieve in order to be successful. This, in itself, is a driving force.
Rewards
Findings reveal that educators were not rewarded fairly. Rewarding educators with different qualifications alike may discourage them from being interested with pursuing teacher education. That the importance of keeping top talent employees is to ensure the accomplishment of realistic targets and good performance. Further mentions that money is the only strongest motivational factor. Educators need to earn salaries as they acquire new knowledge, as well as, when they accomplish a new qualification. Therefore, most scholars believe that motivating people to pursue with education increases professional growth and organizational performance. When employees are given ample training and development opportunities, have chances of promotion and career change, they are likely to remain bound to that organization without wanting to quit the organization. There is a positive relationship between rewards and employee engagement. This presupposes that fair rewards may motivate educators to be engaged with further education related to their jobs. Odendaal warns that employees usually compares their salaries to that of others and may quit the job when they notice disparities within their pay, reiterates that organizations should utilize the checking system for equity to ensure employee pay satisfaction [39]. Osborne further advises that authorities should remunerate employees in view of specific checking system for equity in a more holistic manner. This checking system may appear in various forms and are cardinally important to see how remuneration relates to other organizations, how fair the remuneration is compared to the organizational productivity, how fair the remuneration is compared to the performance of employees doing the same job with different qualifications, and how fair the decision-making process is with regard to the distribution of compensation [40].
Educators indicated that teacher education go hand in hand with the transformation of the school into a learning organization. This project provided educators with an understanding of the perceptions and attitudes of educators towards teacher education and the impact it has on school transformation. The paper further describes the importance of learning organizations, the importance of teacher education, leadership support needed from education authorities, and the importance of recognizing individual differences.
The researcher deliberately focused on School principals, teachers and education officers who had several years of experience in teaching, leadership and management of schools. Respondents were recruited from ten different schools, excluding ten education officers from the Directorate of education. The study only allowed 10 principals, 10 education officers and 180 teachers to participate in the current study. Recommendations for future studies would be to attempt to recruit additional respondents (experienced and novice educators) and include similar organizations, as this will help to gain further insights into the perceptions and attitudes of educators towards teacher education and the impact it has on learning organization.
The study recommends for educational authorities to review the entire reward system across the education sector and plan with great enthusiasm. Moreover, this paper reiterates that educators need to be rewarded fairly, their individual talents need to be recognized at all costs, they need to earn as they acquire new knowledge and as they accomplish new qualifications. This will also inspire educators to keep abreast with teacher education which is needed to transform schools into meaningful learning organizations. This study also recommends for educational authorities to redesign the reward strategy, as well as to determine and initiate interventions that can encourage educators to pursue with teacher education that could yield to transformation of the Namibian schools into learning organizations. Teachers must learn if the school has to develop into a learning organization, and learners must learn if society is to succeed.
It is recommended that future studies should focus on other organizations and compare how perceptions and attitudes are different between organizations. Regular assessment of job satisfaction can ensure that employees remain committed and engaged at the organization.
My special heartfelt gratitude go to my siblings and family for the support, motivation and persistent encouragement to undertake and produce this magnificent piece of academic work. You will be inspired to quantum heights.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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